Comelec Davao City cleanses list of voters

DAVAO CITY, Nov 26 (PIA) A local election officer revealed that cleansing of the list of voters is going on to ensure that only the qualified registered voters can exercise the right of suffrage in the 2013 midterm elections.

Atty. Aimee Ampoloquio, election supervisor of the City’s First District, said those to be deleted on the list of voters will be voters who have sought to transfer registration outside Davao City, upon the confirmation of the office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the town where the voter has relocated.

She said that the total number of registered voters might reduce as soon as their office receives the application of transfer coming from Comelec office in other municipalities.

Ampoloquio disclosed that after the final day of registration in Oct. 31, Davao City now has a total of 969,000 registered voters, with 420,000 in District I (City proper), 299,000 in District II and 250,000 in District III, respectively.

She explained that this number might still be reduced since the poll body has to cleanse the list from multiple registrants and deceased voters.

Ampoloquio said that the Election Registration Board, composed of an election officer as chair and two representatives from other government agencies would either approve or disapprove an application for registration transfer.

She said that in the latest ERB hearing, several applications for transfer were disapproved on the ground that the residence indicated on the voter’s address was inaccurate.

“They should have been residents before of the barangay indicated, but they moved out, that is why some interested parties opposed the approval of their application,” Ampoloquio said.

She said the ERB also approves the deletion of deceased voters from the list of registered voters.

Ampoloquio said they are currently finalizing the list of deceased voters since the local poll body is provided only with a soft copy from the Civil Registrar’s Office.

She disclosed that based on the soft copy from 2009 to 2012, the Civil Registrar’s Office listed 37,000 deceased individuals for all three districts of the city.

Ampoloquio observed that the number also included even those who were not qualified registered voters.

“I have to request the Civil Registrar to exclude in their list those who are below 18 years old and to account the correct number of deceased persons per district,” she said.

She maintained that the local poll body needs to work double-time in order to clear the list of registered voters.

Ampoloquio said that for now, they maximize all their manpower resources in cleansing the voters’ by working two-hour overtime per day just to do the job.

She also disclosed that the poll body will also cluster a maximum of seven precincts into one precinct to ensure efficient handling of the elections.

Ampoloquio said that based on the guideline issued by the poll body, a clustered precinct must not have more than one thousand registered voters. (RGA/JSD/PIA XI)